There is a growing demand for magnetic recording/reproducing devices which have an increased recording density due to the amount of information being stored increasing constantly. Specifically, there is a need for a magnetic head having high sensitivity and high output due to the demands for increased recording density. To meet such a requirement, efforts have been made to decrease a distance between a magnetic disk medium and a write element or a read element of the magnetic head. However, there are problems associated with each technique currently used.
One specific technique currently used, as described in Japanese Patent Office (JPO) Pub. No. JP-A-2004-241092, which is put to practical use, has a heating element provided near a head element, and a head element portion is heated during reading and/or writing data to/from a magnetic disk so that the portion is expanded (such that it protrudes toward the magnetic disk) so as to approach a surface of the magnetic disk. In a slider having the heating element, an air-bearing surface (ABS) projects near the heating element due to thermal expansion of the heating element and a peripheral member of the element, so that the ABS approaches the magnetic disk surface.
However, a position of the heating element does not always correspond to a position of the read element or the write element, leading to a problem where an ABS portion close to the heating element projects as shown in FIG. 3, and an interval between the ABS and a disk cannot be decreased further at a position of each of the write and read elements.
As an attempt for solving the problem, a method has been proposed, as described in JPO Pub. Nos. JP-A-2004-241105 and JP-A-2006-40447, in which power is applied to a heating element during polishing so that a portion to be projected is depressed beforehand. Furthermore, a method has been proposed, as described in JPO Pub. No. JP-A-2006-40447, in which heating elements are provided at two places in one magnetic head, including a place near an ABS and a place relatively spaced from the ABS, and the heating element near the ABS is heated during polishing of the ABS in a manufacturing process of the magnetic head.
However, these methods introduce more problems that have not been adequately dealt with, and prevent their uses from aiding the manufacturing of magnetic heads.